Books about Moderne from Amazon.com

The classical elegance of the Regency period in England is considered one of the most sophisticated and refined moments in design history. Throughout the twentieth century, designers took elements of the Regency vocabulary and restyled them to meld with the reigning design aesthetic of the day to extraordinary effect. The book opens with an introduction to the original Regency period, which built its sophisticated aesthetic on the example of the Neoclassical style of Napoleon’s time. It then picks up with the Art Deco designs of Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann and Süe et Mare in France. By the 1930s, the Vogue Regency returned home to England where Sibyl Colefax and Syrie Maugham created stylized classical interiors. In America, the Regency revival took hold in Hollywood on the lavish film sets of the 1930s and ‘40s. Designers and architects to the stars such as Billy Haines and T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings made a mark with their work for the Hollywood elite. The book concludes with Regency fashions of the 1930s and ‘40s, when Dorothy Draper and Elsie de Wolfe cut a stylish swath with their Regency-infused designs from coast to coast. Rounding out the vintage interiors are designs by acclaimed contemporary designers. Each chapter is illustrated with a rich selection of images of interiors, film sets, and furniture..
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The Seven Addictions and Five Professions of Anita Berber is the first contemporary biography of a notorious actor/dancer/poet/playwright who scandalized sex-obsessed Weimar Berlin during the 1920s.

In an era where everything was permitted, Anita Berbers celebrations of "Depravity, Horror and Ecstasy" were condemned and censored. She often haunted Weimar Berlin's hotel lobbies, nightclubs and casinos, radiantly naked except for an elegant sable wrap, a pet monkey hanging from her neck, and a silver brooch packed with cocaine. Multi-talented Anita saw no boundaries between her personal life and her taboo-shattering performances. As such, she was Europe's first postmodern woman.

Among those Anita Berber claimed as members of her vast sexual harem were Marlene Dietrich, Magnus Hirschfeld (the founder of modern sexology and gay liberation), Klaus Mann, Conrad Veidt, Lawrence Durrell, and the King of Yugoslavia. Berber acted in Fritz Lang's Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler and starred in the silent epic, Lucifer. Even Leni Riefenstahl credits Berber for inspiring her controversial career. After sated Berliners finally tired of Anita Berber's libidinous antics, she became a "carrion soul that even the hyenas ignored," dying in 1928 at the age of 29.

The Seven Addictions and Five Professions of Anita Berber chronicles a remarkable career, including over 150 photographs and drawings that recreate Anita's enduring "Repertoire of the Damned."

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Price: $13.70 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Over the past intensely productive decade, Louise Bourgeois's drawings have been dominated by diary-like work in which text and sign often mix. This extensive compendium of that work and its antecedents shares a series design with her recent book of sculpture, and the dialogue between mediums is lively in both titles, which also share a determination to put Bourgeois's current work in the context of her oeuvre, not just her work in other mediums but her work of other eras. Long denied due recognition, Bourgeois became an avant-garde superstar late in life, and is today, at 94, considered "a great figure of the postmodern" (Peter Weiermair). Since the 1980s, her work has followed the prevalent notion of art that rejects universal style and formal understanding in favor of a personal approach. Her central concern lies in establishing an intense, open discussion on the dialectics of thoughts and feelings, on the internal conflict wrought by external relationships. Here, some 150 works are grouped thematically around motifs such as "rivers," "spiders" and "proverbs/aper us." A separate retrospective section of older works allows the rest of the book to shift toward the present, which is full of dark and dervish-like activity. Of her prominence, Bourgeois has said, "My luck was that I became famous so late that fame could not destroy me." On the contrary, readers will agree that fame--or is it time?--has invigorated and animated Bourgeois to an exceptional degree..
Price: $32.90 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann, Pierre Chareau, Robert Mallet-Stevens, Charlotte Perriand, Eileen Gray: together these designers and their contemporaries pioneered the look of the modern French interior during the 1920s. Moderne presents the finest examples of this work in more than two hundred plates, selected by the curator of the Wolfsonian museum and faithfully reproduced to preserve their original color pallets. This sumptuous volume is comprehensive in scope, beginning with the early art moderne of Ruhlmann and concluding with the avant garde work of Gray and Perriand, discussed in an essay by historian Jeremy Aynsley. Designers’ biographies and a brief bibliography are also included, making this an inspirational resource for interior designers and architects, and an indispensable reference for historians of the modern era.

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Price: $29.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In comparison to the works of such contemporaries as Amedeo Modigliani and Marc Chagall, the highly individualistic paintings of Chaïm Soutine (1893–1943) are not as well known, yet their revolutionary potential influenced Francis Bacon and Willem de Kooning, among others. Born in Belorussia, Soutine received his training in Paris while such artistic movements as Cubism, Dadaism and Surrealism were creating a stir throughout Europe. Soutine, however, rejected the freedom of subject matter afforded by modernism, choosing to devote himself entirely to painting still lifes, landscapes and portraits. At the same time, he developed his own distinctive style, characterized by its intense emotion and violent brushwork. This compelling study considers Soutine’s position at the intersection of various artistic movements of the early twentieth century, and juxtaposes his powerful works with those of other masters of modern art. END.
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Long regarded in Japan as a master architect, Kengo Kuma first entered the European limelight two years ago when he won the "Spirit of Nature Wood Architecture Award", being the second architect to win this prize after Renzo Piano. Timber construction, however, is merely one field in which this declared environmentallysensitive architect has specialised. This monograph presents 14 selected projects from 1992-2003, including the Museum of Hiroshige Ando and Stone Museum (Toshigi Prefecture, Japan), the Water/Glass-Villa (Atami, Japan), the Plastic House in Tokyo and the Bamboo House near the Great Wall of China. All projects are portrayed in exact technical drawings full of details and material specifications..
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Jacques Herzog & Pierre de Meuron (mit ihren Partnern Harry Gugger und Christine Binswanger) gehören unbestritten zu den führenden Architekten weltweit. Band 3 des Gesamtwerks erscheint nun in einer aktualisierten Neuauflage: um 40 Seiten und circa 80 Farbillustrationen erweitert. Einige Projekte, die in der Erstauflage noch im Bauprozess befindlich waren, werden jetzt abschließend fotografisch dokumentiert: so beispielsweise das Laborgebäude der Hoffmann-La Roche in Basel, das Innenstadtprojekt «Fünf Höfe» in München, das Fußballstadion St. Jakob in Basel sowie die Wohnhäuser an der Rue des Suisses in Paris..
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At first sight, the childlike figures for which Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara is now famous seem altogether cute and appealing On closer examination his creations are robust, angry, and vulnerable creatures, standing up defiantly to the world of adults--self-confident, stubborn, and sometimes violent. Nara's work is influenced by Japanese comic books but he is unique in the contemporary art scene for tapping into horror through the medium of the innocent child--this is particularly poignant in Japan's controlled society of rigid language and social structures, especially considering recent shockingly violent crimes in Japan involving children as the aggressors. Nara's work instills the viewer with a juxtaposition of the innocence of children and the evil nature of humanity, or the fall from grace. Like Kurt Cobain's music, Nara's Pop art, too, aims to lend expression to his generation's concerns, encouraging it to meet the constraints of high achievement. Self-determination, individuality, and freedom are themes that infuse Nara's voice that is clearly heard in Japan and America, where the dividing line between "low" and "high" culture is less stringently drawn than in Europe. In addition to Nara's signature paintings, sculptures, and drawings; (poems and diary entries by the artist); this 204-page book includes texts by the art critic Stephan Trescher and the Japanese cult author Banana Yoshimoto..
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This richly illustrated book reproduces in full color more than one hundred of Mark Rothko`s paintings, prints, and drawings, including some of the stunningly simple yet enthralling rectangle paintings for which he is famous. The volume provides commentary on various formal aspects of Rothko`s work, interviews with contemporary artists who reflect on Rothko`s artistic legacy, and a chronology of the Russian-born artist`s life (1903-1970)..
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